


Stability

by schroedingersfox



Series: All Teeth, No Bite [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Established Relationship, Human Loki, Loki (Marvel)-centric, M/M, Sequel, Vampire Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 02:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14487279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schroedingersfox/pseuds/schroedingersfox
Summary: Tony’s smile is all teeth, long and sharp, now that he no longer has to hide what he is. He uses those teeth to graze across the skin of Loki’s throat, a threat he won’t follow through on—not since the first time—but he plays at it often enough that some days, Loki just wants him do it.





	Stability

 

 ~~Dating a vampire has its advantages.~~ Dating a vampire is weird.

The schedules never seem to match, at least no more for a few hours at a time; but early into winter, the sky is black by five and Tony is awake when Loki gets home from class. He doesn't come over every night, but it's nice to know he's available in the dead of night when Loki has trouble sleeping.

It's like dating the third-shift baker all over again. They parted amiably after a few months, disappointment running deep that they couldn't make it work, but Loki has never been inclined to wake up early or stay up late. A part of him wonders if this won't end exactly the same.

In other ways, that’s where the similarities stop. The baker had a bright, warm smile, cheeks hollowed with dimples and dusted with freckles.

Tony’s smile is all teeth, long and sharp, now that he no longer has to hide what he is. He uses those teeth to graze across the skin of Loki’s throat, a threat he won’t follow through on—not since the first time—but he plays at it often enough that some days Loki just wants him do it.

He knows the reason why Tony won't drink from him; it was made viscerally obvious. But Tony stayed a few hours later that first night, lying on the bedspread on his back, hands clasped over his stomach, and Loki asked questions: namely how long, and how old. Loki lay next to him, curled lightly on his side, the two of them learning what the other’s presence felt like.

He knows the reason. He just doesn't know if it's worth addressing when everything is still uncertain.

*****

They often eat out at Tony's choosing, because he knows the good restaurants and he has the cash. Loki offers to pay, once, and steals away the check before Tony can. He freezes at the amount, chest feeling tight—how could the two of them eat that much?—and already-settled dinner threatens to fling itself back onto the plate.

Tony takes the check and sets it aside, wraps his hands around Loki’s, and says, “Don't worry about it.” If there’s a mental push hidden there somewhere, Loki is grateful for it in the moment, but the next day he snaps at Tony for his paternalistic bullshit.

Tony lets Loki choose the next dinner out.

*****

The first night Tony cooks dinner for him is the first night he stays over. They stay up into the morning and Loki blocks out the window with a spare blanket under Tony’s instructions. He’s unable to hide his skepticism as well as he thinks, so after the sun is fully above the horizon, Tony stands to the side of the window and gently lifts the edge of the blanket, other hand cupped to catch the light.

His skin blisters in seconds, and Loki shouts, startled.

Tony falls asleep with a hand wrapped in a bandage while Loki secures the makeshift curtains with duct tape.

***

He’s never seen where Tony lives, not yet, and sometimes he wonders if perhaps Tony doesn’t just sleep under a bridge. But then Tony laughs, points out he hasn’t worn the same clothes in over a week, and Loki counters he could do the same if he hid away in the neighborhood Sears.

*****

Some nights they take walks together, Tony meeting him at his campus for a change of pace. There are times, Loki’s noticed, when the arm around his waist gets a little more firm, and their usual route takes a different path. Loki can't call him out for that—he wouldn't even know what to say—but later he finds the words.

“Who are you avoiding?”

Tony looks to him and seems to be choosing his words carefully for once. This he's improved, not immediately resorting to lies, and Loki takes heart that Tony has been listening.

“Neighbors,” he says at last, definitive.

Loki studies him with brows knit together. The word rings false, but Tony remains serious. It's a code, Loki determines, and he nods.

He can ask later; there are things that should not be mentioned in public.

*****

It takes weeks, then months, and then there's talk of moving in. “I have less things,” Tony says, and Loki agrees, relieved that he won't have to pack. Tony is over at his place enough, anyway.

Tony stays up late one day and converts the spare bedroom into a small but usable space for the both of them. It's cramped and windowless, built like an afterthought, and aside from the rotting porch out front Loki figures it’s a high contender for what contributed to the paltry rent. Tony hammers together a wood and fiberboard desk they found on Craigslist, bought but never assembled, having arrived with everything but the instructions. Tony laughs at that. He says it will be a good puzzle, and Loki’s face feels like it's burning when he thinks that this is what made him realize he might love him.

Loki leaves for class and comes home to find Tony asleep in the spare room on the futon couch—a remnant from the previous tenant. The desk and bookshelves are complete and lined up against the opposite wall. Hot tears prick at his eyes and he goes to scrub at his face in the bathroom. It's overwhelming sometimes, knowing this could work and could give him something like stability.

*****

Tony starts cooking nearly every meal thereafter. He teases he should clean out the fridge to start fresh and get rid of the frozen microwaveable dinners while they're at it; but Loki gets defensive, upset that Tony would even consider wasting that much food that he didn't even buy.

A gradual transition is agreed upon. Tony offers to take care of the food costs, since this imposition to routine was his idea in the first place, and promises to keep spending modest. The rift in wealth between them goes unspoken most days. Tony doesn't live extravagantly, but he has decades upon decades upon centuries of income and interest squirreled away in several banks; he can afford to forget the numbers of how much he actually has.

“What else would I do with it?” Tony says. “Buy a fancy house with maids and gardeners who never see the owner? Surround myself with opulence that sits untouched during the day?” He waves a hand. “Money is for the living. It's just a convenience for me.”

Loki doesn't think he'll ever fully understand, in the end.

*****

“You’re a liability,” Tony replies to Loki’s suggestion in the same manner as if he had said, _It’s going to rain._

Loki grips his fork tighter in hand. “What does that mean?” Hurt and disbelief well up inside and they taste like bitterness.

Something close to shame crosses Tony’s face and he cringes. “I worded that badly.”

Loki can’t even form words, and for the moment, he doesn’t try.

“I just meant— No. I did mean it, but I am sorry how it came out.” Tony sets down his glass and leans on the table, arms crossed. “You’re tagged,” he says at last. “You’ve taken some of my blood, so the other vampires leave you alone for it.

“But New York, well. Not everyone is so polite. Some of the older ones smell your blood? That could be bad.”

“I don’t understand,” Loki says, quiet and voice forced.

Tony reaches out across the table to take Loki’s hands in his own. “Normally your anemia wouldn’t be an issue. From a feeding perspective, it’s an instant turn-off. And it was, for a time. It’s getting a lot better. You're getting healthier.

“But a vampire is only as strong as his food, yeah? And others wouldn’t know that I’m supplementing with another source. All they’d think is that I couldn’t find a better one, that your blood’s making me a pushover, and that I’d be an easy target.”

The air around him feels too hot to breathe, and Loki grips Tony’s hands as tight as his eyes are closed. The food now smells unappetizing for as much as its importance—to his health, to this relationship—has grown. “I thought you said my blood would be a turn-off.”

“A cat doesn’t need to eat its food in order to play with it.”

Tony is all sharp teeth, sometimes.

*****

They’re in the kitchen, prepping vegetables for dinner. Loki hasn’t spoken to Tony since getting home from class, the conversation from the night before repeating itself hour by hour, drowning out lectures and his own thoughts. Tony attempted to make conversation, but after the second time, he got the hint and let Loki be. Tony, who mostly stays home, sleeps all day, and is awake when Loki isn’t; Tony—

Loki slices an onion in two. The knife hits the wooden board beneath with a satisfying _thunk_ and he grips the handle harder.

Tony, who still goes out at night sometimes for actual sustenance, plays at being a nutritionist like it’s a hobby with no end date in sight; Loki isn’t a _hobby—_

The back edge of the knife slices through the pad of his thumb, so much like the meat Tony’s preparing next to him. He hisses and pulls his hand away. There’s a moment to think maybe it isn’t so bad, and then the skin starts to pucker blood, and both of them watch it pulse out. Tony grabs a towel to wrap Loki’s thumb.

“Are you _serious_?” Loki asks, and he might sound a bit hysterical, frustration and onion-sulfur making his eyes wet.

Tony hesitates. “What do you want me to do?”

“You have to ask?” Blood runs down his hand and drips to the floor. “What did you say last night, it’s an ‘instant turn-off’? You won’t even _try_ it.”

“Oh, Loki,” Tony says quiet, and he takes Loki’s hand in his. He licks the trail of red from the wrist, and then the palm, pressing a kiss into it; he saves the thumb for last and takes it into his mouth.

Loki is certain his pulse is only pushing the blood out faster while the knot in his chest gets tighter. “Well?”

Tony looks up at him, stare intense, abandons Loki’s hand for his mouth and pushes him against the counter edge. Loki clutches at the back of Tony’s shirt and pulls him in, chest wanting to split open with relief and vindication and love when Tony cups the back of his head and kisses and nips his way down to his neck.

There’s no preamble; after nearly a year he’s forgotten the pain of teeth piercing through his skin. Loki winces and fists the fabric in his hands harder, waiting for the venom to take effect, numbing the pain to something dull while heat fills him. Tony doesn’t pull away this time; he only locks his arms tighter and mutters Loki’s name when he readjusts.

Loki’s eyes roll upwards and close, and it feels like he’s floating. He’s floating in water, on the ocean with no land breaking up the horizon. He can no longer feel his arms or legs, only the steady throb of blood leaving him. The tightness in his chest is gone, anxiety and fears gone with it, and he exists only now, in this moment, in Tony’s arms.

He’s vaguely aware of his legs giving out, of Tony holding him upright, of cold air wisping against his neck once more and then Tony’s warm lips against his. Tony lifts him up and carries him out of the kitchen and lays him down on the couch.

“I’ll finish up supper,” he says, and he kisses Loki’s forehead, pushing back his hair.

Loki drifts off.

*****

He isn’t sure how long it’s been when he wakes, only knows that the kitchen smells of stew and his appetite is ravenous. Loki pushes himself upright and waits for his vision to steady. It could be worse, he thinks; no worse than a hangover.

In the kitchen, Tony is sitting at the small table and grins when he sees him. “I guess the diet is working.”

“Shut up,” Loki says, but he hides a smile. It’s overwhelming sometimes, this stability.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, it's really been over two years since the first story with these two. Comments very much appreciated!
> 
> I'm over here on [tumblr](http://foxachu.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/foxachu), and you can [send me prompts here!](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/schroedingersfox_personal/profile)


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